MODERATOR: Mr. Secretary, we have a number of questions and we’ll just get to as many as you can accommodate.

At the debate last night, Senator Kerry spoke of the idea of preemptive strikes and said, “Here we have our own Secretary of State who has had to apologize to the world for the presentation that he made to the United Nations.”

So the question is: Have you apologized to the world and is that a correct characterization, and what is your comment about Kerry’s statement?

SECRETARY POWELL:

With respect to the presentation that I gave on the 5th of February of last year, it reflected the best view of the intelligence community. Not unanimous on every point, always matter of judgment where people disagree. But that presentation was vetted throughout the intelligence community, and when there was a slight difference of opinion, I mentioned it in my presentation. But it reflected the considered judgment of the intelligence community with respect to Saddam Hussein’s intentions, with respect to weapons of mass destruction, the capability that he still had with respect to weapons of mass destruction, the unanswered questions as to what did he do with biological materials that we know he had, what did he do with other weaponry that we knew he had but hadn’t accounted for, why hasn’t he answered the questions that had been put to him for 12 years? That’s what the presentation dealt with.

The presentation also dealt with, in a significant way, the information we had concerning stockpiles that we thought he had, that most of the intelligence community, communities of the world, thought he had. We weren’t alone in this. It was a body of intelligence that had been presented at the Congress, to all the members of the Senate and the House repeatedly. It was a body of information that caused President Clinton to become so deeply concerned in 1998 that he launched a military action against this capability. Saddam Hussein is a man who has used these weapons against his own people and against his neighbors. So he had a history of it, an intention of doing it. He was hiding things. He was not responding to the demands of the international community.

And the only thing where we got it wrong and where the presentation did not hold up was actual stockpiles. We have seen nothing to suggest that he had actual stockpiles. And Mr. Duelfer, who is working on this for us, will be issuing a report next week and will talk to this point.

So that was not right, and as we have gone back and looked through the intelligence, there are indications that we had bad sourcing and we should have caught some of this bad sourcing. For that, I am not only disappointed but I regret that that information was not correct.

(emphasis added)

THE INTELLIGENCE PRESENTED ON FEB 5, 2003, NEITHER REFLECTED “THE BEST JUDGMENT OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY”, NOR WAS IT BASED ON “BAD SOURCING”.

THE REPORT DID NOT REFLECT “THE JUDGMENT OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY”; IT WAS PLAGIARIZED BY TWO JOURNALISTS IN TONY BLAIR’S PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE FROM A STUDENT’S PAPER: “COPY AND PASTE” OFF THE INTERNET.

THE REPORT WAS BASED ON FABRICATED INTELLIGENCE, WITH A VIEW TO DELIBERATELY MISLEADING PUBLIC OPINION AND PROVIDING THE ANGLO-AMERICAN COALITION WITH A PRETEXT TO INVADE IRAQ.

MODERATOR: How do you respond to Senator Kerry’s charge that the U.S. outsourced the search for Usama bin Laden to Afghan warlords?

SECRETARY POWELL: The charge has been made on a number of occasions by various people that they knew exactly where Usama bin Laden was on the day a particular battle took place in a location called Tora Bora. Our military commanders are good, and I don’t know all the details of that battle, but I think it’s a stretch to say that somebody knew he was there and they knew it at the time the battle was going on so that we’d know how to go get him.

And so, I can assure you that we are looking for Usama bin Laden. The Pakistanis are being very active along their side of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan chasing al-Qaida and Taliban elements. They recognize that this is a threat to them as well as a threat to Afghanistan and a threat to us.

But with respect to a specific tactical operation and who might have been in Tora Bora that day or not, I have no reason to believe that our commanders mishandled that. I don’t know what they knew about who might be there or not there. What they’re trying to do is work with the allies of the resistance, the Northern Alliance and others, and the emerging Afghan forces who were in the area at that time. But I don’t have the details of the battle to a level of knowledge and precision that I can go back in time and tell you what was there. Maybe others are serendipitous enough to do that. I’m not.

THE ADMINISTRATION KNEW THE WHEREABOUTS OF OSAMA BIN LADEN.

ACCORDING TO A CBS NEWS REPORT BY DAN RATHER, OSAMA BIN LADEN WAS IN MILITARY HOSPITAL IN PAKISTAN ON SEPT 10, 2001, ONE DAY BEFORE 9/11.

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